(1)

The Commission (Eurostat) needs to be in possession of sufficiently reliable, detailed and comparable data on the population and housing, in order to enable the Community to fulfil the tasks assigned to it, in particular by Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty. Sufficient comparability must be ensured at Community level as regards methodology, definitions and the programme of the statistical data and the metadata.

(2)

Periodic statistical data on the population and the main family, social, economic and housing characteristics of persons are necessary for the study and definition of regional, social and environmental policies affecting particular sectors of the Community. In particular, there is a need to collect detailed information on housing in support of various Community activities, such as the promotion of social inclusion and the monitoring of social cohesion at regional level, or the protection of the environment and the promotion of energy efficiency.

(3)

In view of methodological and technological developments, best practices should be identified and the enhancement of the data sources and methodologies used for censuses in the Member States should be fostered.

(4)

In order to ensure the comparability of the data provided by the Member States and for reliable overviews to be drawn up at Community level, the data used should refer to the same reference year.

(5)

In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics (2), which constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation, it is necessary for the collection of statistics to conform to the principles of impartiality, in particular objectivity and scientific independence, as well as transparency, reliability, relevance, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality.

(6)

The transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality is governed by Regulation (EC) No 322/97 and Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (3). Measures that are taken in accordance with those Regulations ensure the physical and logical protection of confidential data and that no unlawful disclosure or non-statistical use occurs when Community statistics are produced and disseminated.

(7)

In the production and dissemination of Community statistics under this Regulation, the national and Community statistical authorities should take account of the principles set out in the European Statistics Code of Practice adopted on 24 February 2005 by the Statistical Programme Committee, established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (4) and attached to the Recommendation of the Commission on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities.

(8)

Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely the collection and compilation of comparable and comprehensive Community statistics on population and housing, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, due to the absence of common statistical features and quality requirements as well as a lack of methodological transparency, and can therefore, by way of a common statistical framework, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(9)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (5).

(10)

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to establish the conditions for the establishment of subsequent reference years and the adoption of the programme of the statistical data and the metadata. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

(11)

The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted in accordance with Article 3 of Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom,

(a)

‘population’ shall mean the national, regional and local population at its usual residence at the reference date;

(b)

‘housing’ shall mean living quarters and buildings as well as housing arrangements and the relationship between the population and living quarters at the national, regional and local levels at the reference date;

(c)

‘buildings’ shall mean permanent buildings that contain living quarters designed for human habitation, or conventional dwellings that are reserved for seasonal or secondary use or that are vacant;

(d)

‘usual residence’ shall mean the place where a person normally spends the daily period of rest, regardless of temporary absences for purposes of recreation, holidays, visits to friends and relatives, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage.

The following persons alone shall be considered to be usual residents of the geographical area in question:

Where the circumstances described in point (i) or (ii) cannot be established, ‘usual residence’ shall mean the place of legal or registered residence;

(e)

‘reference date’ shall mean the date to which the data of the respective Member State refer, in accordance with Article 5(1);

(f)

‘national’ shall mean on the territory of a Member State;

(g)

‘regional’ shall mean at NUTS level 1, NUTS level 2 or NUTS level 3, as defined in the classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), established by Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) in its version applicable at the reference date;

(h)

‘local’ shall mean at Local Administrative Units level 2 (LAU level 2);

(i)

‘essential features of population and housing censuses’ shall mean individual enumeration, simultaneity, universality within a defined territory, availability of small-area data and defined periodicity.